Last year, after roughly four decades on television, ABC canceled TV soaps "All My Children" and "One Life to Live". Commentators were quick to point to Facebook games as the culprit, spear-headed by an April AdWeek report, with even earlier speculation supplied by GamaSutra a month prior. Then, "As the World Turns" ended in September, and it no longer felt like speculation. Everyone was running with it.

In this climate stepped "Corrie Nation", a social game on Facebook to mark the 50th anniversary of the U.K soap opera, "Coronation Street". Because obviously, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" seemed like a good call.

But for a show that brings in millions of viewers, the Facebook game only managed an all-time high of 88K monthly average users. Players have been falling since the launch, leading ITV to announce their taking down the game by the end of this coming July. But ITV hasn't given up on the concept. They want a major rehaul over the summer, so they're dropping their contract with Enteraction and will soon be in the market for a new games developer.

Anyone who's interested in checking out "Corrie Nation" within the next two months, can play it on Facebook. There's already a surge of activity due to news of the (hopefully) temporary shutdown.